Movies: Past, present and future

Golden Globes: Ryan Gosling's absence and other mysteries

January 15, 2012 | 7:42pm

Award season is filled with riddles and mysteries, but few shows pack them in like the Golden Globes. Halfway into Sunday's show, several bits of strangeness have presented themselves -- Peter Dinklage telling us to Google a man's name, an unfamiliar Turkish actress on stage, and no Ryan Gosling. Here, for your viewing pleasure -- or at least to minimize your confusion -- are a few of the notable puzzles, explained.

Gosling gone? He's nominated twice this year, for lead actor in a comedy/musical ("Crazy Stupid, Love") and lead actor drama ("The Ides of March"). Yet although co-star and director George Clooney was everywhere Sunday, Gosling was nowhere to be found. Where was the young comer? The official word on the red carpet is that he was shooting a new film. (It's possible. There may be some final work to be done on "Gangster Squad" as well as preparations for Thai western "Only God Forgives.") But just as likely, Gosling was cultivating the myth of Gosling. As "Ides" writer Beau Willimon said on the red carpet, "He does his own thing."

Turkish delight. The proceedings took an odd turn with the appearance of one Meltem Cumbul, a Turkish actress few viewers had ever heard of. Who was she? She's done a lot of screen roles in Turkey, where she's known for the show "Yılan Hikayesi" (which, in case you were wondering, Wikipedia lists as "the highest rated program ever in the history of Turkish television"). We're still not sure why she was at the Globes, but at least now we know who she is. Sort of.

Google who? Dinklage, who won the Golden Globe for supporting actor in a series, miniseries or motion picture made for television, closed his acceptance speech by mentioning Martin Henderson, urging viewers to “Google him!” We did.

Dinklage, who has a form of dwarfism and is 4 and a half feet tall, was talking about a British man who was attacked last October while celebrating his 37th birthday. Henderson was thrown in an apparent “dwarf tossing” prank that left Henderson partially paralyzed and using a wheelchair. "I guess I was an easy target and the only reason I was picked on was because I am small,” Henderson told London’s Telegraph newspaper. “People's attitudes to me when I go out can be pretty cruel. Most are OK, but you get the odd idiot who will make fun and start laughing at me.” Police are investigating the incident.

[Updated at 10:33 p.m., Jan. 15: We solve two more mysteries below.]

Silence is golden? Jean Dujardin went silent when accepting his lead actor in a motion picture comedy or musical prize as an homage to "The Artist's" lack of sound. But viewers also found the broadcast going quiet for a few seconds on two other occasions. First as presenters Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek left the stage, host Ricky Gervais quipped, "I can't understand a... word they're saying." And then during Meryl Streep's acceptance speech for lead actress in a motion picture drama. The flustered actress let slip, "Oh, ... I forgot my glasses."

Tongue Twister. In response to Gervais' jibe, Banderas said, "Let me answer to Ricky," and then let loose with an animated, rapid-fire speech in Spanish before Hayek interrupted, "Ricky, I don't understand him either." Rather than amping up the insults, Banderas apparently was uttering a tongue twister popular in Spanish-language acting classes, used to improve diction, that involves a recitation of rhyming words. Whatever shots Banderas took at Gervais must have happened backstage.